Fight Over Transgender Pronouns at Work Faces Muddy Legal Waters

A federal appeals court’s recent dismissal of a Christian teacher’s suit over a school district’s transgender name-and-pronoun-use policy has added another layer of uncertainty for employers grappling to balance LGBTQ workers’ rights with religious freedom claims.

Since the US Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which granted federal employment protections to LGBTQ workers, there’s been a steady increase in internal complaints from workers who say their religious beliefs prevent them from calling a transgender person by their desired name or pronoun, attorneys say.

Bostock held that LGBTQ employees are protected from discrimination under Title VII of ...